GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Not far from our station, a tree split in half and fell on several properties. Another landed on a woman’s home.
It appears there was major damage along Brookfield Avenue just off Plainfield, but it was scattered throughout the neighborhood.
The owners of a home on Lamberton and Waterford just put on a new roof and porch.
The storm knocked a large limb right on it. The damage, if any, looked minimal.
Just down the street a pine tree uprooted falling in someone’s front yard.
It too did not appear to do any major damage to the property.
But the next block over things looked a bit different.
Dan Kozak’s lived here about seven years.
“I was working and the babysitter called me and said the tree fell down in the backyard,” said Kozak.
A tree in the neighbor’s yard split in half falling on part of a nearby roof.
Neighbors say the homeowner is in the nursing home.
But on Dan’s property, fences are down and their trampoline is now destroyed.
“Neighbors trampoline and my trampoline, along with half the fence. I’m not sure what I’m gonna do at this point,” he said.
Lisa Rogers is the babysitter who called him.
“I just couldn’t believe what happened back there. Yea, it was like a mess. And then the trampolines are just smashed down and I was like ‘did we just have a tornado come through here when I was gone?’”
Right next door another tree fell on Karen Kresnak’s property.
She’s been here 18 years and just returned from getting coffee when she saw the damage.
Once inside she noticed two holes in the attic and then realized only a few people in the neighborhood were affected.
“It’s almost like again, not being a meteorologist, but it’s almost like a straight-line wind that went through here and here,” said Kresnak, “hit my house the neighbor’s house, the house back there and right straight back where that pine tree was.”
Both neighbors say the next step is cleanup and calling insurance.
